Mysterium Tremendum In Jesus Camp

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For thousands of years, many monotheism religious text have told people to spread the word of their god to expand these religions. By doing this, many different religions and religious movements have been able to spread their religious ideas to many different countries. This is especially true for Christian and Christian based religions. In the documentary, Jesus Camp, it is about the evangelicalism Christians in the mid west and about a camp that parents send their children to, to learn about Jesus, God, and Christianity. When watching this documentary, it was very clear that the parents were set in teaching their children these ways without letting them be exposed to other ideas by means of home schooling and church functions. There are …show more content…
In the beginning of the film when you first see the children and the leader of the group, Becky Fischer, is preaching to the children and tells them to all stand up and let the lords word come through them.(Jesus Camp) When all the kids stand up, they put their hands up and start speaking in tongue. What was happening is what sociologist call Mysterium Tremendum, which is an overwhelming feeling attracted to religion. This Mysterium Tremendum is describe as an amazing feeling of awe and power to people who experience it. I believe that having the feeling of Mysterium Tremendum is a very important part in mobilizing a religious movement, because it gives people a reason to stay. People will want to stay in a religion that makes them feel good and give them good experiences. Radcliff Brown said, as a structural functionalist, that people need to tend to the needs of society as a whole. Knowing this, the churches will try and do everything in their power to make everyone involved and every one that may be interesting in being involved feel this kind of power. If people are having bad experiences they will leave, so having this idea of Mysterium Tremendum is an essential part in mobilizing a